Kim Clijsters says she’s “proud” to return to the No. 1 ranking. And she should be. Earlier today the affable Belgian won the last 12 games to beat Jelena Dokic 63, 60 in the quarterfinals at the Open de Gaz in Paris. The win assured Clijsters of overtaking current No. 1 and Slam-less Caroline Wozniacki when the new rankings are released Monday.

Clijsters, who just won her fourth Slam at the Australian Open, becomes the first mother to rank atop the WTA computer in singles. And according to the WTA, Clijsters will spend her 19th career week at No. 1 next week, her first since March 2006 – an incredible span of 256 weeks.

Clijsters will play Kaia Kanepi in the semifinals tomorrow. In the other semifinal it’s American Bethanie Mattek-Sands against Petra Kvitova.

Congrats to Kim and her “team” on the achievement. Here’s a message she taped for her fans:

Finally, a number one in women’s tennis that is fully qualified to hold the position. With or without pressure, Caroline will have a hard time winning a major with her style of play. She is very young, hopefully she can inject more aggession in her game.

Lovely player, seems like a lovely woman too. Well done Kim :)
Gregoire G: what do you think of Kvitova? I think she’s No. 1 material. Very strong both wings, moves well for a tall person, just needs more experience at key moments.

i think no.1 will be switched a lot in the next few months. kim is not playing too many tournaments. she goes on break till IW i think..so she can’t solidify her position. there is big tournaments coming up… dubai and doha…caro could get her # 1 back.

Kim has to defend miami i think but lost of points for grabs during clay season which she did not play due to injury last year.